In addition to his writing and reporting duties at the PJ Star, Steve Tarter is one of the more prolific podcasters there. His podcast is called, “Tarter Source” and I was honored to be his very first guest when he started the series in March of 2016.

I’ve been friends with Steve since the early ‘90’s and he used to write for my magazine People of Peoria, so there's always a lot for the two of us to talk about and it was a lot of fun. He told me after the first podcast that he’d have me back for the 100th episode and I remember wondering if that would really happen. Well, last Thursday it really did happen and Steve invited me to be his guest on his 100th Tarter Source episode. In honor of this special event, I thought I’d bring cake and those of you who read this blog regularly know exactly where this is heading...

Straight to Trefzger’s, the official bakery for these MBIP “Let Them Eat Cake” episodes!

Here’s the cake for the 100th Tarter Source episode baked and designed by Kayla, who is the official cake artist for the MBIP Let Them Eat Cake episodes. It’s really beautiful and I love how she incorporated the Tarter Source logo on the cake. Wonderful work as always, Kayla

In addition to baking and designing custom-made cakes, Kayla is also a musician and a member of the band Thetah. You can listen to their music and buy their album, ‘024’ by clicking right here. Thetah has a live show coming up at one of the best live music venues in town, The Red Barn! The show is happening on Saturday May 12 and they’re on a bill with Super 88 and Encounter at L-5, check out all the details here. I’m going to the show, so stay tuned for pictures and a blog from that in a couple of weeks! Okay, time to take the cake and head to the PJ Star podcast studio!

We’ve arrived at the Peoria Journal Star. The once crumbling steps have been fixed which is good because while you can’t just walk in off the street and write for the PJ Star, you can just walk in and be part of the 100th Tarter Source episode. And now we can do it without tripping over crumbling steps. Nice!

This is the lobby of the PJ Star and there’s the spot where I stood in 1989 while a former editor told me in snotty and condescending tones that you, “Don’t just walk in off the street and write for the Peoria Journal Star!” You can here me tell that whole story for the bazillionth time at the beginning of the podcast which I’ll have a link for coming up soon, but first...

There's the host of Tarter Source, the one and only Steve Tarter! He struck two poses for me, so we get to see Steve from both sides now! It’s kind of like gazing at a three dimensional version of a Joni Mitchell song. And no, I’m not high, so just shut up!

Here we are at the PJ Star podcast recording studio. Wow, they’re a little crude here, but hey, I’m not here to judge, so let’s go on in and see what’s happening.

Wow, it’s a real state of the art affair in here! I was expecting a couple of walkie-talkies and Phil Luciano’s eight track player, but they’ve gone all out and look at all the equipment in here! And there’s the two fellows who are going to make this podcast and video happen. That’s Matt Dayhoff, who’s the videographer and director for the show and Adam Gerik who’s the sound technician.

Lots of wires and equipment on the table here, they said it would be a few minutes before showtime, so I wandered over to...

This bulletin board. It’s got your obligatory mimeographed turkey on it, but what intrigued me was the Christmas card tacked on it, so let’s take a closer look at it.

It says: “Merry Christmas, The Peplinski Family 2016.” Then it proceeds to list the members of the Peplinski clan and they are: Jesse, Kari, Claire and I’m having trouble with that last name, but it appears to be Blatz! Now that is frightening, I mean who would name their child after some low-rent discount beer like Blatz? What, was there a cousin already named “Schlitz?” And why is there a two year old Christmas card from this family on the bulletin board anyway? Are they the secret owners of the PJ Star? Is this family also known as Gatehouse Media? Is Blatz the little bastard child that made the rule that you can’t just walk in off the street and write for the Peoria Journal Star? Well, my mind is absolutely reeling so let’s just slowly walk away from this postcard and pray we never meet this twisted family face to face! Yikes!

At this point in the interview I abandoned Steve and walked off camera to get my two bottles of tea. It was a decidedly Rutles moment in the episode. For the record I only drank one bottle of the tea during the interview. I drank the other on the way home while thinking of a nude girl and a teapot.